Tanner hopes to ease strain of mental illness

Potter County judge candidate Nancy Tanner held a news conference Tuesday to lay out a proposal to help ease the strain the mentally ill put on county resources.

The plan would involve establishing a transitional center for patients facing long-term commitment in other facilities to reduce the number of mentally ill in jails and Northwest Texas Health System’s Pavilion.

Law enforcement officials in Potter and Randall counties have previously said mental health issues are a concern. There are also mental health commitments made by county judges for those not in jail.

A first step would be a community committee to discuss the issue and options, Tanner said.

“This will take a while to do, but the process must be started,” she said, adding that the concept is in its early stages so things such as state funding, location and scope are still to be decided.

“We (Potter County) have a lot of land ... we can use that as an incentive,” Tanner said.

The transition center could serve more entities than just Potter County as does the Youth Center of the High Plains, which takes in juvenile offenders from across the region in its facility in Randall County, Tanner said. The counties where the juvenile charges originate pay for beds there.

“I’ve had people tell me you’d have people from other states, and it could go farther south to Lubbock,” Tanner said.

Tanner faces four other candidates — former mayor Debra McCartt, Bill Bandy, Jeff Poindexter and William Sumerford — in the March 4 Republican primary. Early voting starts Feb. 18.